Clock tuning device and method

ABSTRACT

A clock tuning device and method for executing overclocking operations on plural elements disposed on a motherboard. The clock tuning device includes a phase-locked loop for outputting a plurality of clock signals to the elements, and a control circuit for controlling the phase-locked loop to adjust the frequencies of the clock signals, so as to execute the overclocking operations on the elements, respectively. The method includes the steps of: increasing the frequency of a first clock signal until one of the elements can&#39;t work normally due to an utmost frequency of the first clock signal; resetting all the elements and operating the element corresponding to the first signal according to a safe frequency of the first clock signal; and repeating the above steps to perform overclocking operation on each of the other elements.

This application claims the benefit of Taiwan application Serial No. 092124670, filed on Sep. 5, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a clock generator, and more particularly to a device and the method thereof for respectively tuning frequencies of a plurality of clock signals generated by a clock generator.

2. Description of the Related Art

In general, a conventional PC (Personal Computer) has a clock chip for providing various clock signals for elements disposed on a motherboard, such as a CPU (Central Processor Unit), peripheral chips, and buses. Because the tolerance of the working frequency of these chips and buses have been taken into account in the design stage, overclocking operations may be executed by the clock chip on these elements, so as to increase the working frequencies of the elements and thus the system's efficiency are enhanced.

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram showing chips disposed on a motherboard. These chips comprise a CPU 110, a north bridge chip 120, a south bridge chip 130 and a clock chip 140. When the overclocking operation is to be executed by the clock chip, a watchdog timer 141 inside the clock chip 140 is first set. Next, the watchdog timer 141 is enabled, and then the following overclocking operation is executed. The clock chip 140 increases the frequency of a clock signal and then outputs the clock signal to the element corresponding to the clock signal. Consequently, the system of the motherboard will be checked to determine whether the system of the motherboard works normally or not after increasing the frequency of the clock signal.

For example, the clock chip 140 increases the frequency of the clock signal (CPU_CLK) provided for the CPU 110 from 100 MHz to 101 MHz, and then the CPU 110 is operated according to the CPU_CLK. Meanwhile, the CPU 110 executes a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) program and thus the south bridge chip 130 generates the SCLK and SDATA signals to reset the watchdog timer 141. If the CPU is workable according to the frequency (101 MHz) of CPU_CLK, the watchdog timer 141 can be reset before it generates an interrupt signal. Furthermore, the clock chip 140 sets the frequency (101 MHz) as a safe frequency Fsafe of the CPU_CLK, and increases the frequency of the CPU_CLK from 101 MHz to 102 MHz.

If the CPU 110 is unworkable according to the frequency (102 MHz) of the CPU_CLK, the CPU 110 cannot execute the BIOS program and thus the south bridge chip 130 cannot output the SCLK and SDATA signals to reset the watchdog timer 141. Thus, the watchdog timer 141 generates an interrupt signal and the clock chip 140 sets the frequency of the CPU_CLK equal to Fsafe (101 MHz). Then the system of the motherboard is reset.

However, the conventional clock chip 140 outputs various clock signals which correlate to one another. That is, if the overclocking operation executed on the clock signal provided for the accelerated graphics port (AGP) 121 fails, other clock signals (e.g., CPU_CLK) cannot continuously be overclocked. Hence, the overclocking range of each of the chips, buses or other elements, which operates according to the clock signal outputted from the clock chip 140, is restricted by the element having the smallest overclocking tolerance. Moreover, the timing period of resetting the watchdog timer 141 is too long so that the clock chip 140 has to spend a lot of time to perform the overclocking operation. Therefore, the overclocking method of the conventional clock chip still has some drawbacks to be overcome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a clock tuning device and method capable of respectively executing overclocking operations according to various clock signals outputted from a clock chip, and of shortening the time necessary for the clock chip to execute the overclocking operation.

The invention achieves the above-identified object by providing a clock tuning method applied to a clock chip for executing an overclocking operation. The clock chip, which is disposed on a printed circuit board such as a motherboard, is for outputting a plurality of clock signals. One of the embodiment of the method including the steps of: increasing the frequency of a first clock signal; resetting the printed circuit board when the system of the printed circuit board cannot work normally, and recording the value of the frequency of the first clock signal at that time; and subtracting a default value from the value of the frequency of the first clock signal and storing the subtracted value as the working frequency of the first clock signal. The steps are repeated so that the frequency of each of the clock signals can be tuned.

The invention also achieves the above-identified object by providing a clock tuning device for executing an overclocking operation. The clock tuning device is coupled to a CPU and a south bridge chip, and the clock tuning device, the CPU and the south bridge chip are disposed on a motherboard. The clock tuning device comprises plural registers for storing values of frequencies of a plurality of clock signals, a phase-locked loop coupled to the registers for respectively outputting the clock signals, and a control circuit for adjusting the frequencies of the clock signals outputted by the phase-locked loop to execute the overclocking operations on the clock signals, respectively.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram showing chips including a clock tuning device disposed on a motherboard according to the prior art.

FIG. 2 a is an architecture diagram showing chips including a clock tuning chip disposed on a motherboard according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 b is a block diagram showing the clock tuning chip of FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a clock tuning method of an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Please refer to FIG. 2 a. FIG. 2 a is an architecture diagram showing chips disposed on a motherboard, wherein the chips include a clock chip 240 of an embodiment according to the invention. In this embodiment, a CPU 210, a north bridge chip 220, a south bridge chip 230 and the clock chip 240 are disposed on the motherboard. The CPU 210 is coupled to the north bridge chip 220 through a front side bus 211. The north bridge chip 220 is coupled to the south bridge chip 230 through a bus 222, and the north bridge chip 220 is further coupled to an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 221. The south bridge chip 230 accesses the clock chip 240 through a serial bus, such as SMBus (System Management Bus), which transmits signals, such as SCLK and SDATA signals.

The clock chip 240 serves as a clock tuning device. FIG. 2 b is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the clock chip 240, which comprises a watch dog timer 241, a PLL (Phase-Locked Loop) device 242, N registers with a 1st to N-th registers (N is a positive integer) 243, a control circuit 244, and a flag 245. The PLL device 242 is for generating N clock signals (e.g., CPU_CLK, AGP_CLK, PCI_CLK . . . ) according to the values stored in the N registers 243, so as to respectively provide clock signals for the elements such as the CPU 210, the AGP 221, and the PCI bus, etc. Each of the N registers 243 may be respectively set to store a predetermined value before a corresponding overclocking operation is executed.

The control circuit 244 executes the overclocking operations by adjusting the values stored in the N registers 243. The watch dog timer 241 provides a timer function, and the south bridge chip 230 can access the flag 245 and the watch dog timer 241 by generating the signals such as SCLK and SDATA signals.

When the clock chip 240 performs overclocking operation on one of the elements, the flag 245 is set to 0. When the clock chip 240 finishes the overclocking operation, the flag 245 is set to 1. Therefore, when the overclocking operation is executing, the CPU 210 may execute a BIOS program to read the flag 245 of the clock chip 240 through the north bridge chip 220, the south bridge chip 230 and the serial bus (SMBus). If the flag 245 is 0, it means that the overclocking operation has not been finished, and the BIOS program continuously reads the flag 245. At this time, the signals (SCLK and SDATA signals) are transmitted continuously on the serial bus. If the flag 245 is 1, it means that the overclocking operation has been finished, and the BIOS program stops reading the flag 245. Accordingly, if one of the elements (for example, the CPU 220) disposed on the motherboard cannot work normally during performing the overclocking operation, the south bridge chip 230 will fail to generate the signals to read the flag 245. Hence, the clock chip 240 is able to determine whether the elements works normally or not by detecting the existence of the signals generated by the south bridge chip 230 when the flag 245 is 0.

The described embodiment may utilize the BIOS program to access the flag 245 of the clock chip 240 through the south bridge chip 230 and the serial bus, so that the clock chip 240 can determine whether the overclock operation is successful or not by detecting the signals generated by the south bridge chip 230. In another embodiment of the invention, the BIOS program can access the watchdog timer 241 of the clock chip 240 through the south bridge chip 230 and the serial bus, so that the clock chip 240 can determine whether one of the elements disposed on the motherboard works normally or not by detecting the signals generated by the south bridge chip 230.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a clock tuning method according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in this drawing, the overclocking operation is performed on an element disposed on a printed circuit board (PCB) by tuning an i-th frequency value of the i-th output clock signal of N clock signals, wherein the printed circuit board may be a motherboard and the i-th frequency value may be stored in the i-th register of N registers.

Please refer to FIG. 3. In step S301, it is determined that whether the i-th frequency value of the i-th clock signal stored in the i-th register is equal to a predetermined value (e.g., 100 MHz). If yes, it means that the i-th clock signal has not been overclocked yet, so step S303 is executed. If not, step S315 is executed to determined that whether the i-th frequency value equal to or larger than an i-th utmost frequency value. In step S315, if the i-th frequency value is equal to or larger than a utmost frequency value, step S311 is executed to subtract a dafult value Fsafe from the i-th frequency value, and then step S313 is executed to start performing overclocking operation on the (i+1)-th clock signal. If the i-th frequency value is smaller than the i-th utmost frequency value in step S315, step S303 will then be executed.

In Step 303, it is determined that whether an overclocking operation with respect to the i-th clock signal (e.g., CPU_CLK) is to be executed or not. If yes, step S305 is executed, else step S313 is executed.

In step S305, the i-th frequency value stored in the i-th register is increased by an increment of, for example, 1 MHz, and the frequency of the i-th clock signal (CPU_CLK) is increased according to the i-th frequency value (101 MHz). The increment may be a default value or set by the user. After step S305 is performed, step S306 is executed to detect whether signals generated by a chip such as a south bridge chip exist or not, so as to determine whether at least one of the elements works abnormally. If the signals can't be detected in step S306, it means that at least one of the elements cannot work normally, else the process of the method returns back to step S305 to continually increase the i-th frequency value.

Furthermore, if the signals cannot be detected in step S306, step S309 is executed to keep the i-th frequency value (102 MHz) as the i-th utmost frequency value of the i-th clock signal and generates a reset signal to reset the printed circuit board.

After the reset operation is executed in step S309, the process of the method returns to step S301 and the overclocking operation will be continually executed as described before. That is, in step S301, it is determined that whether the i-th frequency value (102 MHz) stored in the i-th register is equal to the predetermined value (100 MHz). Since the i-th frequency value has been increased in step S305, the i-th frequency value should not be equal to the predetermined value. Thus, step S315 is executed to determined that whether the i-th frequency value equal to or larger than the i-th utmost frequency value (102 MHz). Because the i-th frequency value is recorded as the i-th utmost frequency value in step S309, step S311 is executed after step S315 to decrease the i-th frequency value by the dafult value Fsafe (1 MHz). Then, step S313 is executed to start performing overclocking operation on the (i+1)-th clock signal. As a matter of course, the element corresponding to the i-th clock signal is operated according to the i-th frequency value (101 MHz).

Furthermore, the working frequencies of the elements such as chips, buses, and other electrical elements disposed on the printed circuit board may depend on one another sometimes. So, after each of the clock signals has been overclocked, it is possible to repeat the steps of the method to respectively overclock each of the clock signals again. Furthermore, each of the clock signals may be overclocked according to a sequence and overclocked again according to another sequence. Besides, a specific value may be added to the frequency values of the clock signals after all the clock signals are overclocked, so as to test the highest working frequency of each of the elements.

The invention provides a clock tuning apparatus and the method thereof for respectively performing overclocking operation on each of the elements disposed on a printed circuit board. Hence, each element will be operated according to an optimized frequency. Besides, the invention determines whether an overclocking operation fails or not by detecting at least a signal generated by a circuit coupled to the printed circuit board. Thus, the time for performing overclocking operation could be effectively shortened. It should be noted that the sequence of the method, the way to detect the signal for determining whether an overclocking operation fails or not, and the devices used for achieving the invention are not limited by the above-mentioned embodiments.

While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures. 

1. A clock tuning method for utilizing a clock generator to execute an overclocking operation on a plurality of elements disposed on a printed circuited board (PCB), the method comprising: performing the overclocking operation on one of the elements, comprising: increasing a frequency of a clock signal generated by the clock generator to operate the element corresponding to the clock signal; repeating the step of increasing the frequency until one of the elements cannot work normally, meanwhile, the frequency is viewed as an utmost frequency of the clock signal; resetting all the elements, and operating the element corresponding to the clock signal according to a safe frequency of the clock signal, wherein the safe frequency is lower than the utmost frequency; and repeating the step of performing the overclocking operation to perform the overclocking operation on one of the elements that have not been performed overclocking operation.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of increasing the frequency of the clock signal further comprises: determining whether each of the elements work normally or not by reading a signal generated by a circuit coupled to the PCB.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the PCB is a motherboard and the circuit is a south bridge chip.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of increasing the frequency of the clock signal further comprises: storing the value of the frequency as the value of the safe frequency if each of the elements work normally after increasing the frequency.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of increasing the frequency of the clock signal further comprises: storing the value of the frequency as the value of the utmost frequency if one of the elements cannot work normally after increasing the frequency.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resetting all the elements further comprises: decreasing the utmost frequency, so as to obtain the safe frequency.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resetting all the elements further comprises: if one of the elements cannot work normally according to the safe frequency, decreasing the safe frequency and repeating the step of resetting all the elements.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of repeating the step of performing overclocking operation further comprises: repeating the step of performing overclocking operation to perform the overclocking operation on the element that have been performed overclocking operation if a plurality of the elements have been performed the overclocking operation.
 9. An apparatus capable of executing an overclocking operation on a plurality of elements disposed on an printed circuit board (PCB), the apparatus comprising: a phase-locked loop, which outputs a plurality of clock signals to the elements and each of the elements operates according to one of the clock signals; and a control circuit for adjusting a frequency of each of the clock signals, so as to respectively execute the overclocking operation on each of the elements.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the control circuit determines whether each of the elements works normally or not by reading a signal generated by a chip disposed on the PCB after the control circuit adjusts one of the frequencies of the clock signals.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the PCB is a motherboard and the chip is a south bridge chip.
 12. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising: a plurality of registers for storing values of the frequencies of the clock signals, wherein the values are adjusted by the control circuit to perform overclocking operation on the elements.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the phase-locked loop outputs the clock signals according to the values stored in the registers.
 14. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising: a timer coupled to the control circuit, wherein the control circuit determines whether each of the elements works normally or not according to the condition of the timer after the control circuit adjusts one of the frequencies of the clock signals.
 15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the elements comprise at least one of a CPU, an AGP, and a PCI bus.
 16. A clock tuning method for utilizing a clock generator to execute an overclocking operation on at least one of elements disposed on a printed circuited board (PCB), the method comprising: performing the overclocking operation on one of the elements, comprising: increasing a frequency of a clock signal generated by the clock generator to operate the element corresponding to the clock signal; reading a signal generated by a chip coupled to the PCB to determine whether one of the elements works normally or not; repeating the step of increasing the frequency and the step of reading the signal until one of the elements cannot work normally, meanwhile, the frequency is viewed as an utmost frequency of the clock signal; and resetting all the elements and operating the element corresponding to the clock signal according to a safe frequency of the clock signal, wherein the safe frequency is lower than the utmost frequency.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of increasing the frequency of the clock signal further comprises: if all the elements work normally after increasing the frequency of the clock signal, storing the value of the frequency as the value of the safe frequency.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of increasing the frequency of the clock signal further comprises: if one of the elements cannot work normally after increasing the frequency of the clock signal, storing the value of the increased frequency as the value of the utmost frequency.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of resetting all the elements further comprises: decreasing the utmost frequency to obtain the safe frequency.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of resetting all the elements further comprises: repeating the step of performing overclocking operation to perform the overclocking operation on the element that have not been performed overclocking operation. 